Give Teshie Desalination to Kasapreko or Accra Brewery
Why make Ghana Water the commercial buyer in the first place? A better structure would have separated production, transmission and retail. The desalination company produces the water. A private commercial operator sells it. Ghana Water provides transmission and distribution infrastructure where necessary and earns a regulated toll for every cubic metre passing through its network.
The Teshie Nungua desalination plant in Ghana, initially designed to produce 60,000 cubic meters of potable water daily, has turned into a liability worth around US$235 million. The plant's closure has left Accra water-stressed, and Ghana now faces substantial arbitration awards. However, the issue might not solely be with desalination.
The plant was shut down because the business model was unsustainable. Ghana Water was purchasing desalinated water at about GH¢6.75 per cubic meter while selling it at around GH¢1.47. This model simply didn't work. In contrast, commercial tanker water in Accra typically costs between GH¢90 and GH¢110 per cubic meter. Therefore, consumers struggling with water shortages are paying up to 13 to 16 times the cost of desalinated water.
The question remains: why did Ghana Water become the commercial buyer? Separating production, transmission, and retail would have been a better approach. A private commercial operator could have sold water, while Ghana Water would have provided transmission and distribution infrastructure, earning a regulated toll for every cubic meter passing through its network.
This structure could have been managed by companies like Kasapreko or Accra Brewery, which have expertise in distribution, customer segmentation, billing, credit control, collection, and route to market. The government should protect affordable basic water, but that doesn't mean every litre from every source should carry the same tariff.
Conventional water should remain within the social tariff structure, while more expensive desalinated water could be sold initially to customers willing to pay for guaranteed supply. The plant was built, an economic strain was created, it was shut down, and now Ghana is facing around US$235 million in awards. It's absurd to reject an arrangement involving water at GH¢6.75 per 1,000 liters, only to see consumers facing shortages pay GH¢90 to GH¢110 for the same volume. The Atlantic Ocean didn't fail Ghana; the business model did.
Written by urgent.news from MyJoyOnline Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
